CAP 16 CAP 5 - Part 12 - Flavor Ability Discussion

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DHR-107

Robot from the Future
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I'd just like to point out that Unburden and Cursed Body are *extremely* competitive. Anyone bringing those sorts of ideas up should really think again.

I can't say I agree with Unnerve either, because people will run it just to screw with other Malaconda.

The only two I really like so far are Stall and Pick Pocket. Either those or No Other Ability. I don't think Malaconda needs another ability with what it already has.
 
Some of the ideas I had have already been mentioned like Stall and Limber. The abilities that jump out right now though are Gluttony, Pickpocket or Pressure

Just to throw something new out there- how about Immunity? I think a poison immunity kind of makes sense to an evil snake creature (even if not based on a poisonous snake). The apple is also a big part of its design and I imagine it would have to look really enticing and fresh to tempt unsuspecting victims- it has no business having a poisoned apple for this purpose. So apple free from poison = whole obdy won't be poisoned by that logic I suppose? Competitively it's completely inferior to Harvest+Lum.
 
I like the proposals of Gluttony, Pressure and Stall, not sure about Pickpocket. However, since She Skin got mentioned I thought I'd throw in a similar ability.

Wonder Skin. Think about it. It's outclassed by far and it pertains to Malaconda's colorful snake skin, without having the competitive potential Shed Skin has. Malaconda's threats already prefer to deal with it with powerful physical moves and priority instead of crippling it with status.
 
Presenting, The Seven Deadly Uncompetitive Abilities!

Gluttony - Gluttony
Greed - Pickpocket
Sloth - Truant
Wrath - Anger Point
Envy - Analytic
Pride - Defiant
Lust - Cute Charm

Personally, I'm in favor of Gluttony, Pickpocket, Defiant, or Anger Point. Each of those seem sinfully delicious.
 
I'd just like to point out that Unburden and Cursed Body are *extremely* competitive. Anyone bringing those sorts of ideas up should really think again.
I would also like to point out that Malaconda really lives and dies by Harvest,being built around the ability, and an ability being, in general, competitive does not necessarily mean it is competitive on malaconda. (similar to how technician is competitive unless the >60 BP moves you have outclass even your boosted <60 BP moves, or how Sheer Force is quite competitive unless you have no moves with bonus effects.)


So I don't think it's fair to say no to Cursed Body or Unburden just because they can be competitive; the question isn't whether or not the abilities have the potential to be competitive choices on any pokémon, the question is if they are viably competitive on Malaconda, which would have to involve taking said abilities being worth the oportunity cost of NOT taking harvest (or infiltrator).



All that having been said, my support is for Limber, Pressure or Cute Charm for the following reasons:

Limber - It's a snake (totally outclassed by Lum!Harvest)
Pressure - Pressuring you to eat the berry (Not a useful ability for Malaconda)
Cute Charm - Temptation and the deadly sin of Lust (noncompetitive)
 

paintseagull

pink wingull
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Limber: No snakes actually get this ability. It is competitive - definitely a valid option over Infiltrator if you want to hold a non-berry item.

I think Pressure is competitive enough that we don't really want it. I'd rather No Ability.

Cute Charm is not temptation. Look at the list of things that get Cute Charm. 75% pink-mons

Pickpocket seems kinda distracting flavour wise to me, though it does have decent precedence. Stall is okay, but I think I'd prefer No Ability or Gluttony still.
 

Base Speed

What a load of BS!
Personally, I'd be fine with no flavour ability. Malaconda already has copious amounts of flavour and is in no particularly need of more. To me, three abilities will make Malaconda look bloated (for lack of a better word). One thing we've done great this project is be concise and precise with Malaconda and it would be nice if abilities weren't the anomaly in that respect.

If I had to pick an ability to go for though, Gluttony or Pressure seem to work best, being pretty much worthless and flavourful. Beware that neither is totally useless, though.
 
Gluttony is the only ability that has been suggested so far that I actually see as useless enough to be considered uncompetitive - even Pressure has some merit in that it has the potential to quickly exhaust the low-PP'd Fire Blasts, Hydro Pumps, etc.

Overall though, I overwhelmingly favor having no additional flavor ability. It feels like we'd just be throwing one on there just so we could have three.
 
Gluttony is so far the best ability I have seen. Pressure I can kind of see, but Malaconda is less pressuring you to eat the apple and more tempting you, so in that way it seems inappropriate. Pickpocket is an interesting idea, but it seems less connected to Malaconda's roots in temptation
 
Analytic
Malaconda would be considered an intelligent being if it is able to lure prey with ease. Also, this ability is a perfectly viable ability as well. The word itself can have the literal meaning "skilled in thinking and reasoning", which is something Malaconda has in spades.
 
Gluttony seems like its the most popular choice here, and I can see why. I can just picture Malaconda eating its own apple (and then growing it back), and going on mass devouring rampages.

Defiant also sounds pretty cool as well. I know it sounds OP at first, but really, hardly anyone tries to lower the enemy stats competitively. Even if they do, it's usually pretty easy to just switch out of. All this would do is make Malaconda a good counter to Intimidate leads, which usually result in the opponent switching anyway.

Pressure is my last choice, and it's really a so-so ability. Lowering your opponent's PP has never been well-known or recommended strategy (hence why Grudge isn't a commonly seen move). Nice for flavor as I can see Malaconda pressuring others do to wrong things, just like the serpent it was based off of.
 

jas61292

used substitute
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Let me start this out by making something clear: competitive reasoning has no place in this discussion. In fact, if you even can make a competitive justification, the ability probably is probably too competitive to even be considered.

Any ability we choose here should be an inferior option to both of its existing abilities. Yes, this includes Infiltrator. I don't care if you think it is a weak ability, Infiltrator was chosen for competitive reasons, and any flavor ability may not outclass a competitive one. Now, this doesn't mean the ability must have no effect, but if any set not using a berry would want it over Infiltrator, it is probably too strong. With that in mind I believe that Gluttony, where any set that runs it would always be overshadowed by a similar one with Harvest, and Pickpocket, which has no real competitive use at all, are fine choices. However, things like Pressure, Defiant, Cursed Body, Unburden, Analytic and others are very much competitive and would certainly outclass the chosen competitive abilities on certain set types, and as such should not be in consideration.

Now, with that out of the way I personally would like to support Pickpocket. It has great precedence, being a DW only ability that is solely on Dark type families, and it also has good flavor in my mind for a tricky Pokemon like Malaconda. Gluttony, on the other hand, I am not a fan of. It gets the instant "omg sin!!!!" reaction, but when you think about the flavor background of Malaconda, it doesn't make much sense. Looking to the whole garden of eden serpent thing, it should want YOU to eat the fruit, and stuffing its face itself kinda defeats the purpose.
 

Birkal

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The slate is currently looking as follows:

Gluttony
No Ability
Pickup
Anticipation
Cute Charm
Anger Point
Stall
Oblivious
Truant
Pickpocket​

I've gone through this thread and picked out all of the abilities that were mentioned that are strictly non-competitive. A lot of popular abilities here (Pressure, Unnerve, Wonder Skin) definitely have some competitive merit, especially when compared to Infiltrator. For that reason, we're going to stray away from slating everything brought up in this thread. Still, I feel like the current slate is pretty sizable and leaves room for plenty of diversity. Please note that I slated everything that was non-competitive. I'm not going to go through and pick out the ones that I think are poor flavor; we can do that as a community during voting.

If you have other non-competitive abilities to bring up or have a final statement to make, use this time to do so. This thread will conclude in 24 hours.
 
Gluttony, Anticipation, and Pickpocket are all winners.

Since Anticipation is up for consideration, I'd like to throw Forewarn out there since flavor-wise they're pretty similar and the competitive differences are slim. I'm aware that currently Forewarn is exclusive to Psychic-types but I see no reason why it can't fit Malaconda.
 

paintseagull

pink wingull
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I'd like to challenge Cute Charm being on the slate. People have brought it up just to fill out the 7 deadly sins slate, but Cute Charm doesn't make any sense for temptation/lust based on the pokemon that currently get it. All of them are *cute* and most of them are *pink*. I think it's fine to slate all things that have some reasonable basis in flavour but Cute Charm is just ridiculous.

I'd also like to challenge Oblivious. Only one person has brought it up and it also has terrible precedence, being on pokemon who seem to be happy-go-lucky, dozy, wall-eyed and silly, where as Malaconda has a smart, calculating personality.

I was arguing against the value of precedence in abilities the other day in #cap but throwing it out the window is a bit ridiculous.
 

dwarfstar

mindless philosopher
Just pointing out that Truant is on the list of banned abilities in the OP. Why is it suddenly slated?
 

Birkal

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Here's the slate!

Gluttony
No Ability
Pickup
Anticipation
Cute Charm
Anger Point
Stall
Oblivious
Pickpocket​

Voting will go up momentarily.
 
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